{"id":44458,"date":"2022-02-11T01:32:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T07:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=44458"},"modified":"2022-02-11T09:16:07","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T15:16:07","slug":"understanding-how-addiction-affects-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=44458","title":{"rendered":"Understanding How Addiction Affects the Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>This article was written by Jim Lang as part of our new series on addiction. In this series, our counselors are sharing how everyone can understand, overcome, and find freedom from addiction<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Every addict asks the same question: &#8220;Why?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cwhy\u201d question takes many forms\u2013 Why do I struggle with this? Why can\u2019t I stop? Why is it so hard?<\/p>\n<p>There are many different answers to the &#8220;why&#8221; questions depending on who you ask.&nbsp;Answers can include your family\u2019s influence, your genetics, your trauma, or your foolish choices.<\/p>\n<p>As we have learned more about the brain and how we process thoughts and emotions, addiction experts have studied the body\u2019s responses before and after addictive behavior. While our biology can\u2019t fully explain why addictions occur, understanding what is happening physiologically can help us understand why addictions are so hard to overcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Definition:<\/strong> Addiction occurs when a person uses a substance (i.e., alcohol, drugs) or process (i.e., viewing pornography, eating excessively, playing video games endlessly), aka \u201cdrug\u201d, which becomes compulsive or habitual and continues to use the \u201cdrug\u201d despite a desire to stop and despite painful and powerful consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Addicts were often introduced to a substance or process by accident. Some<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was written by Jim Lang as part of our new series on addiction. In this series, our counselors are sharing how everyone can understand, overcome, and find freedom from addiction. Every addict asks the same question: \u201cWhy?\u201d The \u201cwhy\u201d question takes many forms\u2013 Why do I struggle with this? Why can\u2019t I stop? Why is it so hard? &#8230; Read More<br \/>\nThe post Understanding How Addiction Affects the Brain appeared first on Biblical Counseling Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":44460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[868,800],"tags":[870],"class_list":["post-44458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-counseling-center","category-selected-authors","tag-for-those-seeking-hope","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/BCC-Favicon-150x150-3.png?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44462,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44458\/revisions\/44462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}